1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a dispenser system for distributing in portions pasty, liquid, sprayable and/or foamed media, with a housing which can be mounted or placed on a wall and a reservoir cartridge held in the housing in a cartridge seating, from which reservoir cartridge a portion of the medium can be distributed in portions via a distribution device as a result of the actuation force of an actuation device applied manually or electrically. In one embodiment of the invention, the reservoir cartridge comprises a reservoir container with at least one supporting face counteracting the weight, the distribution device and a connection element connecting the distribution device to the reservoir cartridge, and the cartridge seating comprises at least one holding means connected to the housing, on which holding means the supporting face of the reservoir container can be placed in order to support the weight of the reservoir cartridge, and at least one abutment supporting the connection element or the distribution device against the actuation force.
Furthermore, the invention relates to a second embodiment of a dispenser system in which the supporting face and the holding means do not necessarily have to be provided, wherein the pressure for the distribution of the medium is generated manually or electrically by an actuation force by means of an actuation device disposed on the housing and can be transferred to a pressure-receiving region of the distribution device by means of a pressure-exerting region of the actuation device and the distribution device distributes a portion of the medium in portions as a result of this pressure.
2. Description of Related Art
Dispenser systems of this kind are generally known. Such dispenser systems usually comprise a housing with a rear wall which can be fixed to the wall of a room. Holding means for the fixing or holding of a reservoir cartridge are disposed on this rear wall, the employed reservoir cartridge being covered by a lid which is connected in the upper region of the rear wall usually in a swiveling manner.
In order to distribute a portion of the medium to be dispensed, an actuation device is provided which can be operated manually or electrically. In both cases, a pressing force presses on a distribution device, usually in the form of a pump, as a result of which the portion of the medium can as a rule be distributed downwards. The actuation device can be a separate push key, usually referred to as a “pushbutton”, but in other embodiments of the dispenser the housing lid itself can be constituted such that it simultaneously forms the actuation device by means of its swivellable mounting, i.e. it acts with a section on the distribution device and can thus transfer a pressing force onto the housing.
Depending on the medium to be dispensed, the distribution device is as a rule designed in different ways. For example, a pump for the distribution of foam thus comprises a foaming device, which is also able to suck up air towards the originally liquid medium, wherein the air and the medium are then caused to swirl together and can thus be distributed in a foamed manner. Dispensers for gaseous media are usually pressureless, so that here too an originally liquid portion of the medium is mixed in the form of an aerosol with air by means of a suitable embodiment of the distribution device and is thus distributed, as it were, in gaseous form. The term gaseous in the sense of this application, therefore, is also understood to mean air flows wetted with liquids, the distribution of purely gaseous media via the distribution device, which is connected to a reservoir container filled under pressure, also of course falling within the scope of the invention.
The known dispensers are in each case capable of distributing the medium in a reliable and visually appealing manner. The drawback with the known dispensers, however, consists in the fact that a special dispenser device usually has to be designed for each kind of medium. This not only increases production costs, but also the storage costs, and it makes it difficult to retrofit a dispenser system which has already been installed with a customer for another medium. Thus, for example, in the case of changing a soap dispenser from a liquid dispenser to a dispenser that is capable of distributing foamed soap, it is often necessary to replace the whole dispenser or at least several parts thereof. A simple replacement of the medium, therefore, is usually not possible for the customer or is at least bound up with considerable cost, which markedly restricts the customer's freedom of decision regarding the media used.